Dear Community,
It’s been such an honour and privilege to serve the legal community as the ED of the Lawyers Assistance Program of BC for these past 28+ years.
The LAPBC began in 1989 as the result of a meeting between Art Vertlieb QC (now KC) and Dr Ray Baker. The physicians had a program to help distressed doctors, and Art thought lawyers should have such a program. In 1990, a meeting was held to gather and train volunteers, and Russ Mackay was brought in as the part-time program coordinator. At the beginning, the program was essentially a 12-step outreach program. It was very successful in helping addicted lawyers and in creating a network of lawyers in recovery. The Law Society provided a small amount of funding, and the organization grew. It soon became apparent that there were more mental health issues to support people with and more people in the legal community to assist than a part-time commitment could handle.
Russ returned to the practice of law in 1996, and the LAP Committee asked the ABA Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs (CoLAP) to evaluate LAPBC. The evaluators determined that the organization needed to grow and to assist more people, province-wide. To do this, a full-time, professionally trained Executive Director was required. The ensuing search resulted in retaining me (Derek LaCroix) as the first Executive Director (ED).
Armed with the CoLAP report, a plan, and an ED, the Board asked the Law Society for funding to secure my position as the full-time ED, obtain office space, and a travel budget. On Friday, December 6, 1996, the LAPBC received that funding and development of the current comprehensive program began.
I was very excited to take on this new challenge. Having practiced law as a partner in my own law firm, doggedly worked on and overcome anxiety and addiction issues, being active in the 12-step recovery program, having a broad lived experience of a number of problems that lawyers face and also running a business, having studied therapeutic counselling with a wide range of training, and having led many workshops at The Haven Institute for Personal and Professional Development, this position seemed like the perfect place to integrate and apply my unique life experiences of the past twenty years. The thought of sharing my healing experience for the benefit of other colleagues in the legal profession was an inspired calling.
I set out to make the LAPBC a province-wide program to help members of the legal community with a broad variety of personal and professional problems. I began to execute my vision with only a part-time office assistant, reaching out to lawyers across BC. The LAPBC has grown to a staff of four full-time counsellors, three of whom are, or were, lawyers. Additionally, three part-time lawyer counsellors and an office administrator round out the hard-working team, all of whom engage with the more than 300 peer-volunteers from around the province.
My vision was to bring an integral and holistic approach that involves multiple modalities of counselling; looking at the whole person and their life, including their professional work and their emotional, intellectual and physical well-being that I, and now LAPBC, bring to helping distressed lawyers. I have been truly blessed to have had an opportunity to bring all my life experience, the good, the bad, the ugly and the beautiful to my life’s work.
LAPBC is an occupationally specific helping organization. We are knowledgeable about the legal profession and the intricacies and difficulties of working within it. We are available to all members of the legal community.
There are so many good people and organizations who have contributed to LAPBC’s success over the years. The entire legal profession has been supportive, with each lawyer contributing a portion of their fees to LAPBC. This reliable financial support has allowed me and the organization to focus on our mission of helping people and to grow organically and with confidence. This is truly a blessing that we trust has been returned tenfold to the well-being of the legal community. The Law Society has been supportive in collecting those fees for LAPBC. As well, the Law Society has consistently confirmed and supported LAPBC’s policy to provide confidential services; LAPBC never discloses information on any of our clients.
Over the years, as we have grown, we have developed more and more expertise in our organization - we have been blessed with many good lawyer counsellors. We currently are blessed with a great team, and I especially note Shari R. Pearlman, my Assistant ED, who shares the vision, passion and calling for helping members of the legal community. We are in a strong and stable position to continue our valuable services with ever-increasing scope and expertise.
The Board and I are moving forward with our Continuation Plan. To that end, we have begun a formal search for a new Executive Director, as I will be stepping back. Our plan is for me to continue as Co-ED until the end of 2025, to ensure a smooth transition, and then continue as an ambassador for an additional period.
I am extremely grateful for the opportunity I have had to serve the legal community. I have now been a lawyer for 50 years, and with LAPBC for over 28 of those years; I love the profession and all its members.
I have had the privilege of working with thousands of lawyers who have shared their pain and troubles with me, and hopefully, I have been able to make a positive difference. I have been able to interact with hundreds of volunteers, many of whom have received help and are rewarded by the experience of passing it forward to other members of their community. It has been a pure joy to watch the passion and caring with which these members are available to help distressed members.
While travelling the province, dealing with law firms and the various legal profession organizations, giving presentations and workshops, I have had contact with many thousands of lawyers. I can say, based on extensive experience over many years, the legal community is filled with good, caring and, of course, competent people. We can be a force for good in the world.
It has been gratifying to witness the significant progress we have made over the past 28 years. Mental health and addictions are now acknowledged as problems requiring assistance rather than as behaviour requiring punishment. We have further to go in shifting worldviews. We need deep cultural change, and we are working on that. Our theme at LAPBC for 2025 is Creating Community. To that end, I am confident that our staff is committed and well-equipped to move that forward. LAPBC is moving to train and empower our volunteers to promote, create, and support the community.
There is some uncertainty about the potential shift in the regulatory system. We will be working to make sure we don’t lose momentum and the progress we have made in supporting lawyer well-being.
Thank you to the entire legal community. To the various board members over the years, to the staff I work with and have worked with over the years, to the volunteers who have been ready and available to help, to the various legal organizations who have supported us by hosting presentations and workshops for them, and to the clients who have shared so vulnerably. This has been a journey of love, and I am grateful to be so blessed.
With thanks,
Derek LaCroix, KC
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